The Next Step
by Aussie-mel
Summary: Sequel to Choices. Cassie comes to terms with who she is and finally meets up with some familiar faces.


Ever since her mother died, Cassie had been taking more and more risks in her nightly patrols. She still didn't know what compelled her to go out each night, hunting for things her rational mind told her didn't exist. It had been months now since she'd had that first dream, since she made the choice, but sometimes she wondered whether it had really been a choice at all, sometimes she believed that it was pre-destined all along and that her yes had merely been a technicality.

She'd researched a bit since then, looking up what may have caused her dreams and increased abilities. She'd taken to skipping gym and any sporting activities, fearing what she might do if she forgot herself. She'd already caught Teal'c and Jack looking at her oddly a few times after she did something that she wasn't supposed to be able to do.

She hadn't really found anything that would explain it all, nothing that made sense anyway, so she'd just learnt to accept it as a part of her. The first time after her upgrade (as she liked to call it) that she was attacked whilst wandering the streets at night had shaken her up pretty good, cassie had been walking through the graveyard, over the recently deceased Jamie Peters grave when he'd grabbed her around the ankle, tripping her up as he'd clawed his way from his grave.

She'd just laid there screaming until he grabbed her and tried to take a bite. That's when the adrenalin had finally kicked in and she'd fought back, with deadly accuracy. She hadn't really known what she was doing but her instincts took over and allowed her to kill him. Cassie had grabbed a fallen branch and plunged it into his cold dead chest. Then he kinda went poof and crumbled to dust.

After that, she ran all the way home. She didn't sneak out again for a week until she finally became too restless, and went looking for another dead guy to kill. Cassie didn't really know what she was doing at that point; it wasn't until a few weeks later that she realized her mystery dead guys walking were vampires. As a native of Hanka she didn't really get the childhood stories of monsters and demons that earth children got, and what little she did hear she didn't take much notice of.

She also got the impression that they weren't common knowledge to the people of earth. After that she looked up every way to kill them and went out hunting every night, one thing she'd discovered was she needed little sleep anymore and she healed fast. It wasn't until a month after her mother's death that she realized what she was doing; she met up with a vampire, only this one was different, smarter somehow. She nearly killed her and gave Cassie the wake-up call she'd been looking for.

After that Cassie stopped looking for death, started being more careful and methodical in her hunting. It was a week later when she met up with the vamp again, she learnt its name this time, she was called Drusilla, and she was as mad as a hatter.

However, whilst she was beaten to within an inch of her life she managed to take a fair swag of Drusilla's boys with her. Laying low for a while, Cassie scoped out where the mad vampire had made her base of operations, gathering as much Intel as possible.

Therefore, it was quite a surprise to Cassie when she saw a group of young women doing the same. So she changed her game plan and started to keep tabs on the other group, and followed them back to the whispering heights motel. Unfortunately she wasn't as stealthy as she'd thought and was caught just outside by a petite blond who was about six years her senior.

Cassie tried breaking free but couldn't, so she went quietly with her up to her room, she wanted to see what they were here for anyway. Entering the room the blond pushed Cassie down onto the sofa in the centre of the room.

"Talk, why were you following us?" She asked with her arms crossed, obviously trying to intimidate her, which wasn't working. After Teal'c and the other nasties she'd seen she was intimidated easily.

"Look, I wasn't following, I was investigating. Besides it's your fault, you turned up at my stakeout," Cassie blurted out glaring at the now amused looking blonde.

"Relax, kid. I'm Buffy, this is willow and Xander," Buffy said pointing out the other two occupants of the room. "Why were you spying on Drusilla?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you" Cassie told her relaxing slightly, now she felt she wasn't in any immediate danger.

"Try me?"

"Fine, she'savampireandi'mahunterndiwastryingtokillher" Cassie mumbled out as quickly as she could.

"What now" Buffy said not having caught a word of what Cassie had just said.

"Buffy, I think she's a Slayer," Willow told her having deciphered her ramble; "It would make sense. The vampire activities here are reasonably low, and remember Jerry, who runs the demon bar in town said the locals were getting spooked, that there was a young girl picking of the vampires in town"

"Yeah, that's me. I'm like some kind of vampire killer. One day a few months, back I just got the urge to go hunting. I've also been having some weird assed dreams" Cassie confided in the other girl. She looked vaguely familiar, they all did, and Cassie just couldn't remember where she'd seen them before.

"Well looks like we've some splanin' to do" Xander said, he was an average build with messy black hair and an eye patch that covered one eye. Cassie thought he looked rather handsome in a pirate kind of way.

"Ok, Into every generation a slayer is born, she alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness, she is the slayer. Or it was until about eight months ago, when Willow here did a spell that activated all of the potential slayers. Which is where you come in, you're a slayer." Buffy told her.

"What, I can't be, I'm not exactly from around here," Cassie told her, looking slightly worried. If what Buffy was saying was true then there could be girls all over the galaxy that now had increased strength.

"What, you an alien or something," Xander quipped laughing hard at his own joke, tapering off in embarrassment when he saw Cassie wasn't laughing, or even denying it. "So, alien huh, how's that working out for ya,"

"Ah, good, but If I'm a slayer that means you activate all slayers in the galaxy, that could be really bad. There are some really bad things out there," Cassie said growing worried.

"Don't worry about it, we run a school for slayers, we want you to attend" Buffy told her "After we take care of Drusilla, that is"

"Ok, I'll go" Cassie said smiling. She was happy for the first time in a long while, she would get to go to school with people like her and learn how to be a better slayer, maybe even join the program one day, and help find the other girls like her out there.

Finis  
_For now_


End file.
